Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Episode III

Note: This blog post is going to evolve over the course of the day due to limited time with work to update it as I process my thoughts and find links to support my writings.

So last night my wife and I along with about 15 others saw Episode III on the only digital projector showing in all of Idaho. I have posted from photos taken with my Sidekick2 to a Flickr set. I have no intention of giving a rundown of the movie, but I will say that it's awesome compared to the other prequels and delivers high in action. It makes a lot of ties to the original trilogy and leads in to them well.

I do want to talk specifics in two areas: 1) Digital Projectors in movie theaters, and 2) George Lucas and his appreciation for dismemberment.

The owner of the theater chain gave a big speech before the movie about his brand new $150,000 projector that was just installed this week by folks from Lucasfilm. He said that there are only 70 digital projectors in the US. Only 22 are of this new state of the art projector line (offering 4 times the resolution of previous models). Only 3 theaters in the US have more than 1 digital projector, we were in 1 of them (they have one top of the line, and one below that). The resolution is something like 2000 width x 1000 height (?2 Mega pixel?). He also boosted that the screen we were in was 1 of only 11 with the Dolby Digital sound system (but as I understand the system is a notch below THX - I couldn't tell, it was great sounding).

Warning: If this post has ROTS spoilers at all it is in this paragraph, please don't read on if you have problems with that. In watching the original Trilogy there is a connection made between Darth Vader and Luke with that they both have had their hands cut off - It implies that they were on the same course in life if you may. I don't think that the trend of having limbs cut off is predominant in the rest of the Star Wars movies (as far as my recollection serves), it happen - Anakin loses arm in Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan cuts off the arm of the guy threatening Luke in the Mos Eisley Cantina, etc., but in Revenge of the Sith there is definitely a high concentration of hands/limbs being severed.

Here are the numbers for characters and their severed limbs (hands count) that I come up with for the entire series: Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader x 4, Count Dooku x 2 (+1 more if you count his beheading), General Grievous x 2, Luke Skywalker x 1, and Mace Windu x 1. If you have other examples please post in the comments - try and stick with only main characters and only with the movies (I don't venture into the expanded universe).

Do NOT use the Google Web Accelerator

Using Google's new Web Accelerator can do bad things like delete your e-mail, remove movies from your Netflix queue, etc. Here is some text that I didn't write about it:

The accelerator scours a page and prefetches the content behind each link. This gives the illusion of pages loading faster (since they've already been pre-loaded behind the scenes). Here's the problem: Google is essentially clicking every link on the page -- including links like "delete this" or "cancel that." And to make matters worse, Google ignores the Javascript confirmations. So, if you have a "Are you sure you want to delete this?" Javascript confirmation behind that "delete" link, Google ignores it and performs the action anyway.

So there you have it folks. Don't do it... instead get broadband. Here's some more info on what's going on, and if your are a web developer how to prevent Google's Web Accelerator from causing havoc on your web applications. [ via Boing Boing ]

Del Taco #780 Boise, ID

Hailing from Southern California, eating at Del Taco is 2nd nature to my wife and I. We love the Del and eat there 2-4 times a week when we visit So Cal around holidays. The past 2 years that we have lived in Idaho we did have what we had grown up with, Del Tacos nearly just around the corner no matter where you went. In fact, the nearest Del Taco bas been 304 miles away in Ogden, UT.

That was until today when Boise, ID finally got it's own Del Taco. Store #780. Of course my family and I were there to partake in the goodness that Del's menu offers. I get a Chicken Soft taco that I add a packet of Del Scorcho sauce to. My wife and kids stick to 1/2 pound red burritos and a strawberry shake (made with real strawberries).

Unfortunately opening day was not a complete success. The shake mixer was broken so my family did not get their strawberry shake we ordered (instead we were refunded and given a free cup for our choice of a fountain drink), and the deep fryer had issues through-out the day, making Del's awesome french fries not always available (kinda ironic that fries wouldn't be available in Idaho since potatoes are the state's number 1 export)... but while we coudn't get fries when we placed our order, they were available by the time we got our food - so we did get some.

Normally getting your food at Del takes 3-5 minutes, but tonight the manager was announcing to customers in line that it would take 25-40 minutes to get your order after placing it. I didn't time our order, but it probably took about 30 minutes. One final problem the store had was that they were not completely setup with the bank for opening day, therefore they were only accepting cash. I have no idea how the owner could make such an over site (mind you it's costly to get a Del Taco franchise), and then on top of that we waited 15 minutes in line before being told it was "cash only" tonight. And of course we didn't have any and had to go to the bank.

Family Guy's Triumphant Return To FOX

This past Sunday evening FOX's animated series Family Guy returned to the network after 2 years of being canceled. After being canceled in 2003 the show had great DVD sales (one of the best sellers of the year - with over 3.5 million box sets sold to-date), and has been apart of Cartoon Network's [adult swim] (cartoons that appeal/cater to adults) with great ratings.

Sunday's episode North by North Quahog kicked off the series' 4th season with a bang by bashing FOX's choice in programming by listing all the failed shows the network has aired since taking Family Guy off the air.